


Be Mine

by twowritehands



Category: The Middle
Genre: Ace Lives, Ace Sean, Asexual, Asexual Character, Bisexual, Coming Out, Fluffy fluff with fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-14
Updated: 2017-02-14
Packaged: 2018-09-24 10:11:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9717332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twowritehands/pseuds/twowritehands
Summary: Axl and Sean's first date happens on Valentine's Day





	

Axl's talk with Sean about all this April mess really helped clear some stuff up. He didn't want to be a Player. But he didn't know that until Valentine's Day, when April asked what romantic stuff he had planned for her.  
  
He laughed, caught completely off guard. They were not serious enough for his Romantic Plans. This weird no-rules thing barely required him to bring the little box of chocolates he had picked up at the gas station. They were glorified booty calls and nothing more. Her assumption meant she expected this thing to play out which meant he was totally playing her and he didn't want that.  
  
Oh god.  
  
"April, we need to talk...."  
  
Breaking up with a girl Valentine's Day morning proved to be the worst. He felt like shit, especially when she cried and said she never wanted to see him ever again. The only solace he had was Sean's comforting voice on the phone ten minutes later. "I'm sorry, Ax. But maybe that's for the best. You guys need to close that chapter and move on for good."  
  
"Yeah," Axl said, despondent. "I guess."  
  
"Hey, want to hang? Maybe play Jerk Not a Jerk?"  
  
Axl laughed. "That sounds awesome."  
  
  
"How do you not have plans?" Axl had to ask when his best friend showed up on time looking like he actually wanted to be there.  
  
"I told you. I have to focus on school right now."  
  
"Oh yeah."  
  
"But that doesn't mean I can't be a decent wingman for my number one bro."  
  
Axl felt flattered but stuck to his guns. "I don't really feel up to Jerk Not a Jerk."  
  
"Okay, then, what play do you have in mind?"  
  
"No play," Axl said, pained that it had to be spelled out. Geezus, was he really so shallow that not even Sean can imagine him wanting something different? "If I'm really putting April in the past I have to straighten up my act."  
  
Sean's brows bunched and Axl explained his reasoning in dumping the hottest girl he had ever met. By the time he had finished the story, Sean looked proud of him. "I'm with you, man. We're not kids anymore. We need to take life more seriously."  
  
Axl felt better now that someone understood him, and agreed with him. Graduation was bearing down on him like a devil train, and if he didn't get his ass in gear then he was going to be an unemployed single guy living with his parents.  
  
They hit a bar and talked more about it. When Axl got tired of dwelling on his misery, he forced Sean to talk about med school until he admitted he was nervous and a little afraid he wouldn't have what it takes to be a good doctor. Axl gave him a pep talk as they wandered down the street. They didn't have a destination. It was just easier to talk if they were both facing forward, moving in the same direction.  
  
Tired, they stopped at a bench and sat. It was a beautiful night, and maybe it was beers or maybe it was finally just having so much off his chest, but Axl felt good and he couldn't help but flirt. Sean flirted right back, almost as if they had found a basket ball and just automatically started playing one on one.  
  
His heart raced every time he scored a point by making Sean laugh. His palms began to sweat a little when the flirting became physical. Sean's arm ended up along the back of the bench, so freaking smoothly Axl felt butterflies.  
  
Leaning just made all the sense in the world.  
  
"Dude," Sean said, turning away, denying Axl his lips.  Veering sharply to the left, Axl tried to pretend as if he hadn't just tried to kiss his best friend.  
  
Mortification seared up his neck and burned in his face. He laughed at nothing. Nothing was funny. He shot to his feet. "Sorry. I thought--"  
  
Sean chased after him, catching his arm two steps from the bench. "No, Ax. Stay! I'm sorry. I do want to kiss you."  
  
"Then what the hell was that?"  
  
"I have to tell you something first." Sean pulled him back to the bench and sat sideways, facing him. "I think if we made out right now it would be seriously awesome. But only if you are okay with only ever kissing."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I don't like having sex."  
  
Axl snorted, and immediately saw that that was the wrong reaction. Sean closed off, even moved a little away from him.  
  
"Wait. Sorry. I just wasn't expecting that. You and me have talked about sex before. You bragged that one time about getting head from that cheerleader with a tongue ring."  
  
He sighed. "I guess you can call all that learned behavior? I talked like people expected me to talk."  
  
"So, what you never got head from a cheerleader?"  
  
"I did. But it wasn't as awesome as I said it was. Sex has never been the best part of any relationship. In fact, sex has ruined every single one of them so far. I've dated different kinds of girls and different guys, too, and it's all the same."  
  
Axl balked at the casual confession to gay sex. They had certainly never talked about that (though to be fair Sean had said a lot of stuff in his hippie phase that Axl didn't listen to.)  
  
"I took the time to cultivate deep, meaningful relationships with these people so it's not about just finding the right one. In fact, having sex with the person I loved always felt like something was breaking, you know?"  
  
Axl shook his head. Sean sighed. "I don't know how else to describe the feeling, man. It just sucks. It subtracts from my happiness. Like a chore I dread doing. I have to box up my feeling and become this dude I don't even know just to please my lovers and it's bullshit. That's why I stopped dating. Not because of school but because it's pointless unless I be true to myself. Unless I just come straight out and say that I'm asexual."  
  
"I've heard of that." Axl said. Sean brightened a little. "Well, I am."  
  
"I'm bi."  
  
He flashed his perfect teeth. "I thought so."  
  
"Ha," Axl felt the lowest, heaviest weight lift. If he had known it would be that easy then he would have said it months ago. Except it wouldn't have been this easy if Sean hadn't come Out first.  
  
He appreciated the courage it had taken Sean to say it first, and he needed Sean to know, so he dropped a hand to his leg. "You're an amazing guy, Sean."  
  
He laughed, bashful. "You are too. It's always a blast to hang with you. No matter what is going on."  
  
His arm settled around Axl's shoulders--when did he even get his arm up again??-- but he kept his cool. "So, like, how long have you known you’re ace?"  
  
"About a year now, I guess. I mean, I knew I wasn't straight since sophomore year. That's sort of why I went new age. I had a lot to figure out."  
  
"So you banged a lot of people just to discover you don't want to bang anyone."  
  
Sean laughed. "Pretty much."  
  
"Wow. That must have sucked. I mean, I thought it was awful what I was going through, but, damn, at least I liked all the sex I had to have to figure it out."  
  
He dropped his head back, laughing. "Finally someone who can understand! You know most people I've told think I'm just, I don't know, making it up or something, like I'm just some sort of freakish man-prude.”  
  
Axl laughed in disbelief. Sean laughed with relief.

"Right? I mean, finding a date is not the problem. You saw how Lexie was all over me. The problem is finding someone who doesn't expect more than I want to give."  
  
"What do you want to give?”

Sean shrugged. “Anything short of getting off together is fine with me. I draw the line at having orgasms with someone. It weirds me out, I guess. Sort of the same thing if someone wanted to take a shit right in front of me. I don't need to see you do that, and if I did, I wouldn't feel the same way ever again.”

Axl laughed. “Wow.”

“That sounds totally crazy, I know.”

He thought about what Sean was saying. “So, to you, getting off should be a private bodily function?”

“Yes. Other areas of a relationship are more important to me. I would much rather spend the time talking and deepening our intimacy than forging a bond based on the compatibility of bodies that are just going to break down over the years.”

Axl frowned with interest. “Oh-kay. Cool. I get it. But, uh….. what do you do when you already know someone really well? Like, someone you’ve known your whole life?”

Sean grinned and kissed Axl for an answer.

He was a _really good_ kisser.

Axl pulled away. “So, uh. You wanna come back to my place and…..cuddle?” At the untrusting look in Sean’s eyes he insisted, “No seriously. We’ll have the RV to ourselves. We can talk until we're blue in the face or the sun comes up, whichever happens first.”

Sean smiled at his toes and then nodded. “Sounds great.”

 

Okay so this was happening. A date with his best friend. On Valentine's Day. A first date on Valentine's Day. Axl's mind whirled with a million romantic things he could do, but he cut away the sexy stuff, and the things that required a lot of money or pre-planning. That narrowed his options drastically and a fool would be lost, but Axl had an idea.

When Sean wasn't looking, he grabbed the deck of playing cards from the windowsill. Then he grabbed a piece of paper from Hutch’s notebook and one of Kenny’s sharpies. Sean set up in the back with Kenny’s spare laptop, logging into his Netflix account and making Axl’s bed more cozy by cleaning off the junk and fluffing the pillows.

Pretending to be busy making popcorn for the movie session, joking about this and that, Axl folded the paper into a fortune teller and scribbled four colors on the outside, numbered the folds 1-8 in the middle, and then on the inside wrote things like _secrets, deepest fears, crazy dreams, pet peeves, favorites, random fact, wish list,_  and _KISS ME_.

“So what do you want to watch?” Axl asked, capping the sharpie.

“Hmm. Totally up to you.”

An idea popped in his head. It was perfect. “Good, because I just decided it's time for a Tremors marathon.”

Sean's lips parted with a happy gasp. “Dude, I haven't seen all 5 movies in forever!”

“I haven't even seen Bloodlines yet.”

“What?”

Axl shrugged, bringing over the bowl of popcorn with the chocolates, a single playing card, and the fortune teller. “It's been on my list forever but I'd rather watch it with you, you know? It's sort of our thing.”

Sean looked touched that Axl thought of him whenever he thought of the movie about man eating worms stalking a sleepy desert town. As if they had not driven their mothers crazy with their GET OFF THE GROUND games when they were kids, climbing all over furniture and scaling walls to avoid the graboids. “Dude. That’s like the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.”

Axl grinned. “Happy Valentine's Day, Sean.”

He presented the candy with a single playing card face down on top of the box. On the blue marble back, the card said From Axl To Sean, and on the front, Axl had written BE MINE? on the ace of hearts.

Sean audibly lost his breath. “Yes.”

Axl laughed happily. “And that's not all.”

He looked flabbergasted that there could be more. Axl presented the fortune teller.

“Pick a color.” Blue. “Pick a number.” 2. Axl grinned. “Ah, now, see, you can either kiss me or tell me a favorite thing. Like which Tremors is your favorite?”

“The first one obviously.  But the third one had it's moments.”

“Ass blasters.” Axl snorted.

Sean laughed. “What else does that thing say?”

Axl made him go through the steps. When Sean picked 2 again Axl grinned. “Going for the kiss option this time?”

“No. I just want to say this is my favorite Valentine's Day ever.”

“Awe. Thanks.”

“I mean it and you did it in like 3 minutes while you made a bowl of popcorn! You're incredible! I--i feel like I can cry a little you're so sweet.” Sean parted his legs and pulled him as close as possible. “You. Are. So. Great.”

“Ah, it's not that hard. I just know you and what you'd like.”

“Yeah,” Sean cut in forceful. He gulped, holding him tight. “You do know me. Better than anyone else on the entire planet. In existence. That’s--sorry, I don't mean to get emotional, god, it's just. You were under absolutely no obligation to do any of this and you did it anyway. Off the hip, you nailed it. That’s what makes you so special.”

He kissed the daylights out of Axl. Then, with a grin, rattled something from his pocket. “Happy Valentine's Day.”

It was a tiny box of sugar hearts. “Oooh, where did these come from?”

“You have your ways, I have mine.”

“You bought these in case I picked up a girl and would need them.” Axl guessed correctly.  “Aw. You were such a great wingman.”

“Were?”

“Yeah--well, you're more than that now, right?” Axl said, heart pounding for the slip. Secretly, he had a pretty good feeling he would never need a wingman again but he kept THAT to himself for now.

Sean kept looking at the ace of hearts and the candy and the movie and the kiss/talk game he devised before the microwave even dinged and he scoffed like Axl had some kind of witchcraft.

“Next year I'm spending hundreds of dollars on you for Valentine's Day and no one can stop me.”

Axl's heart skipped a beat to hear Sean's conviction that they would be going strong in a year. It didn't feel like a player's move or an air head's assumption. It felt real. And he couldn't wait.

They ate the salty popcorn with the sugary sweets and they watched the b rated horror-comedy classic, which they could quote word for word and did mostly, except for when they got distracted. They took turns with the fortune teller and shared more kisses and facts about themselves in one night than they had ever done in their short lives.

The sun rose on them, as they cuddled and watched the end of the fifth movie. When the credits rolled, they smiled at each other.

The movie marathon was over, but everything else was only beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like the Be Mine ace card becomes a Thing for them.
> 
>  
> 
> Every Valentine’s day, Axl gives him one. Like the next year, when Sean stayed true to his word and took Axl out in a limo, gave Axl an expensive watch with an engraving on it, and took him to eat at the classiest place in the city.
> 
> (“how the hell did you get a reservation?”
> 
> “Booked it last year, after our first date.”
> 
> “Awe. Babe.”)
> 
> Axl gave Sean flowers, candy, and an Ace of Spades that had Cupid's arrow shot through the heart of the spade. BE MINE? On the back, he had tapped a spare key to his new apartment with the word roommates?
> 
> “Yes.”
> 
>  
> 
> Or the year after that, when work and school had them so slammed, they almost didn't have time for a proper celebration, but Sean still decorated the apartment with hearts and roses and gave him *ahem* some toys to aid in masturbation because Axl would have never said anything but he was getting tired of his fist (and wasn't brave enough to shop for stuff like this on his own.)
> 
> Axl gave him a puppy with the Ace of Clubs tied around his neck. BE MINE (because Sean had borderline baby fever and this was the best way to stall.)
> 
> “Awwwwwe you cute little baby. Yes I'll be yours. He’s so freaking cute, dude!”
> 
>  
> 
> Or the year after that, when Sean became a doctor, and they celebrated by hitting the town like high rollers again. Axl stopped him from going into the restaurant and pulled the Ace of Diamonds from his pocket. The diamond in the center had been turned into a ring-pop looking engagement ring, the words BE MINE (marry me?) written beneath.
> 
> Sean dropped the card and covered his mouth when Axl opened the ring box down one knee.
> 
> “Yes!”  
> ______


End file.
